


Home again

by MorningSun



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: F/M, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 21:05:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11791467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorningSun/pseuds/MorningSun
Summary: Adam is back in Henrietta for the weekend. Gansey is making a French onion soup. The gangsey is together once more.





	Home again

**Author's Note:**

> Don't I love fluff and tiny domestic snippets. And Pynch and Bluesy and everything in between.

The tiny kitchen area of Monmouth Manufacturing was filled with steam rising from a boiling kettle, an array of ground spices and chopped onions, a slightly bored Henry grating Cheddar cheese and Richard Gansey III, gloriously dishevelled, his glasses propped onto his nose holding a cook book. He had been following the recipe of French onion soup as the Bible.

            “Did I season the onions with salt and pepper?” Gansey looked at Blue, who was loitering nearby, watching his obsessive motions with an impossibly cheerful smile. Just seeing her nearly tore him out of his French-onion-soup trance, “And how do I know if I haven’t coloured the vegetables too much?”

            “You know that the recipe is more of a guideline and not the Ten Commandments?” Adam asked while Blue stepped away from the fridge to let him take out a Coca-Cola can. He was visiting from college, here for the weekend and even though there were still bags under his eyes and the shadow of fatigue in his shoulders, Adam was much more at ease than Gansey had ever seen him be. A grin kept trying to sneak out onto Adam’s lips as he pretended not to notice Ronan’s eyes following him from the couch.

            It was still a little weird for Gansey to wrap his head around the three of them now also being a two-plus-one-of-them, but his chest filled with a quiet happiness at seeing his friends so completely distracted by the rest of the world and its problems whenever they were in each other’s vicinity.

            “I appreciate your input, Adam,” Gansey responded with his usual perfect composure, which was starting to crack around the edges as he thought he smelled something burning, “but I think that it is in all of our best interests that the soup turns out edible.”

            “Parrish,” Ronan called from his place on the couch. His voice was a mixture of irritation and his usual bluntness, but underneath it – something soft, a bit incredulous, “Get back here!”

Just then Adam’s smile broke out for a second and he wasn’t quick enough to contain it.

            “Shut up, Lynch!” Adam called back, but instead of sounding serious he was half laughing, “Don’t make me wish Sunday afternoon came around faster.”

Sunday afternoon, when Adam would go back to college for another three months before seeing any of his friends in Henrietta. Gansey felt a sudden pang of missing Adam as if he had transported himself a few days or a few weeks back in any one of the moments when Gansey stumbled upon another troubling question and desperately wished for his driven, kind and genius friend to be there to help him solve the riddle. This was, of course, ridiculous as Adam was still here.

Still, Gansey thought, their friendship was, like Blue often said – overwhelming to the point of being painful. They were each in a world of their own now, but ever so often the four of them would wander back into the world they used to share and fit so perfectly it hurt.

            Adam went back to the couch and lay down against Ronan’s chest, propping his feet up on the couch, because he didn’t wish for Sunday to arrive early, much less in a day. Ronan’s fingers got tangled in Adam’s hair, they fell back into a previously started conversation. The fingers of their right hands intertwined. Ronan said something that made Adam tilt his head back to be able to look at his face. Whatever Adam said in response made Ronan turn away with a smile like he was embarrassed by being so easily swayed. For Ronan, it still felt like a dream some days. He lifted their hands and pressed his lips to Adam’s knuckles.

            Gansey quickly turned away, suddenly feeling intrusive. His memories re-arranged themselves a fraction again, trying to piece together Adam and Ronan, his two best friends back then and Adam and Ronan, each other’s best friends now. He was making progress.

            “How much of this do you need anyway?” Henry asked, pausing for a second.

            “200 grams,” Gansey answered without missing a heartbeat. He took the lid of the pan with onions and stirred them carefully. Fortunately, nothing was sticking to the bottom of the pan. He held the cookbook up to his eyes to check what was next on the list.

Blue’s finger wrapped around the bottom of the book and tugged it down, uncovering Gansey’s face. Her hair had grown out a bit, which had made it somehow even messier, spiking to all sides like a tumultuous revolution on the top of her head. Gansey’s heart did skip a beat.

Laughter was playing in the corners of Blue’s mouth and in her eyes. She took the book out of Gansey’s hands, although he did try to protest at first, and put it aside. Blue’s fingers slowly walked up Gansey’s chest and finally rested on his neck. Right then he was ready to let the onions burn and ruin their lunch. He pulled her closer, marvelling at the quiet storm Blue’s touch left on his skin.

            “Do you know what just occurred to me, Richard Gansey III?” Blue asked, her fingers now travelling up to his face, tracing his cheekbones, stopping at the corner of his lips. Gansey swallowed, his eyes travelling to the ground from the sound of his full name, which was enough to make him slide his hand all the way from Blue’s back to the inch of her naked waist below her crop top and above her shorts. Blue gasped almost inaudibly.

They had mastered the skill of touching. Actually, they had never really needed to master it, somehow they sensed exactly what to do, where to put their fingers and hands, and cheeks. And lips, Gansey added on an afterthought. The possibility still excited him as much as every clue they’d found on Glendower once had. Only he preferred _this quest_ to anything, and there were still so many clues to find and analyse.

Gansey caught Blue’s eyes and remembered the question.

            “Enlighten me,” he said, reaching over to the stove to stir his soup in the making.

            Blue said, “There’s a Gansey for every one of your lives, which really does make you Richard Gansey _The Third_.” She laughed with the silliness that reminded Gansey of the secretive late night phone calls they used to have. He smiled because Blue was right. There had been a Gansey who died after stepping in a wasp nest, there had been a Gansey frantically searching for a buried Welsh king, who died from a true love’s kiss, and now there was a Gansey preparing soup for his friends, who was happy. Gansey was so vividly in the present he wanted to dance. Instead, he leaned down and kissed Blue Sargent on the mouth.

Because he could.

Because it wouldn’t stop his heart this time. Well, not completely, at least.

It still didn’t keep Gansey from grabbing his chest and re-enacting a heart attack. Blue slapped him on the arm. He laughed openly, which still made some of Blue’s irritation seep out of her eyes.

            “Not funny,” she said, grabbing the collar of Gansey’s shirt and pulling him violently into another kiss.

            “ _Dick_ , where is that _fucking_ soup of yours?” Ronan shouted across the room. Lately, he made a point of being extra rude to mask the fact that he was rarely angry anymore. Especially not now with Adam’s fingers behind his leather bracelets.

Gansey pressed his lips to Blue’s forehead and reached for the cookbook once more.

 

***

Adam had missed the sincerity of the Barns.

He had missed the smell of fresh cut grass and wildflowers.

He had missed the fields that seemed endless.

And he had missed Ronan.

Adam felt he ought to go back inside instead of sitting on the porch because he could be alone whenever he wanted, but he was only with Ronan once in every couple of months. He didn’t feel alone now. Everything around him screamed Ronan and Adam couldn’t look away. Because out here nothing could be hidden away. Each thought and fear, and dream was right in front of Adam. He was playing with the latest one of the latter – a small toy model of the Hondayota, which could be wound up and released to drive away across the steps, yet inexplicably the tiny car always turned around at one point and drove back into Adam’s hand. _Will you?_

Adam sighed, still at a loss for an answer. He had once been so sure of leaving and never looking back. He had once contemplated whether he was playing a game. It had felt like a game of glances and unexplained touches, a guessing of cause and consequence. Adam pulled the car back, it’s tiny wheels screeching, then released it and watched it roll across the porch. The Hondayota stopped at Ronan’s feet. He had just come out of the house.

            “Adam,” Ronan began and the name sounded so much like a promise on his lips. Adam stood up, crossed the porch and took Ronan’s face between his hands before kissing him. He almost didn’t recognize his own name when Ronan said it. _Adam_. As if it would break like glass as if it was sacred and Ronan was afraid to damage it. Ronan said _Adam_ as if he was describing the golden sunlight on the wheat field just before sundown. It wasn’t a game.

He had never expected for anyone to look at him as if he was worth admiring. Adam had dreamt of earning that look one day in the future when he had established his place in the world, but it had never come close to how it felt when Ronan looked at him.

Adam didn’t question whether he deserved it. He trusted Ronan enough not to argue about it.

            “It will be a while until I’ll have saved enough to visit again,” Adam said.

            “And?” Ronan asked as if the knowledge didn’t make him want to punch a wall.

Adam breathed out and wrapped his hands around Ronan’s back, resting his chin on the other boy’s shoulder.

            “I don’t know, Lynch.”

Adam wished they were better at talking, but Ronan pulling him closer was good enough for now.

 

***

 

When the Camaro pulled up at Fox Way 300 Blue was already waiting on the front steps. Gansey was wearing one of his polo shirts. This was dark green. It also showed off his beautiful, toned arms, something Blue would have to take advantage off later.

She got inside the car and for a few seconds they just stared at each other with uncontainable smiles on their faces. Blue took Gansey’s hand in hers and he squeezed it.

            “Do we have to pick up Adam and Ronan?” Blue asked. She missed the four of them driving around in the Pig.

            “No, they should already be at the station,” Gansey answered, switching the Camaro into gear.

 

At the bus station, Ronan and Adam were nowhere to be found. When they did finally arrive, Adam was slightly flushed, they were both breathing a little too fast and Ronan was smiling in a way that should be illegal. Blue was sure they had stopped the BMW somewhere at the side of the road to make out.

Opal was clutching to Adam’s side, unwilling to part with him.

            “So, I guess this is it for a while,” Adam concluded. Blue stepped forward and hugged him tightly careful not to squish the little girl.

            “Call us,” she asked, “And study hard.”

            “He always does,” it was Gansey’s turn to hug Adam. They exchanged a smile and bumped their knuckles.

Ronan’s smile had shrunk. He stood next to Adam with his hands in the pockets of his dark jeans. He looked like someone who had accidentally woken up from a pleasant dream with the memory of it still fresh in their mind.

Gansey joined Blue. She wrapped her hands around his waist and rested her cheek above his heart.

Adam and Ronan were both staring at the ground. Adam glanced up an away.

            “Fucking Parrish,” Ronan said and embraced him. Adam smiled a bit sadly and closed his eyes. Then he opened them and pulled away.

Something transpired between the two of them.

Adam traced Ronan’s cheekbone with his fingers. The other boy almost turned away as if he was already trying to come to terms of Adam not being there. Adam turned his face and forced Ronan to look at him.

            “Dream on,” he said, pulled Ronan close to him once more, kissed the corner of his lips and let go.


End file.
